Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print

In his second major work, Between the World and Me, famous African-American activist Ta-Nehisi Coates relays a condensed version of his childhood in Baltimore, emphasizing the fear he felt towards authority, as well as the police in general. Police brutality plays an integral part of this description; in fact, Coates argues that he has just as much to fear from the police as from the streets. Coates ends the book by relaying an incident of police brutality that had occurred to one of his friends, who was mistakenly profiled, and killed by a police officer.

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

This book provides a connection between racism and the war on drugs. It makes a clear point that racism is not dead and in fact has a huge impact on police incarcerations. For example the “stop and frisk” rule grants police officers the right to search people based on suspicions. The grounds of these suspicions can be, dress, walk, driving ability, and as Alexander points out, skin color. “Alexander provides numerous statistics that suggest that poor black men are on the whole, stopped more often by police, arrested more often, and imprisoned more often than white offenders.” The permanent damage wrongful convictions cause are substantial and are enough to ruin a persons life.

Williams, Kristian. Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America. Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull, 2004. Print.

This book offers some insight on the process in which police are taught to make violent decisions. It argues that the values and morals vary from person to person and sometimes a “bad apple” can land a job as a police officer. Another interesting this to note is that the prison industry is booming right now with the increase in number of incarcerations. Prisoners are paid next to nothing to manufacture products such as clothes and furniture. Perhaps this serves as a motive for police to wrongfully accuse and incarcerate people. Since black people are usually lower class. They make easy targets for police officers to wrongfully incarcerate.